Craveri’sMurrelet – Optics4Birding Nature Blog Networkhttp://www.optics4birding.com/blog
Animals, Birds and Nature in depth articlesWed, 31 Jan 2018 21:38:19 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.5A Laysan Albatross in Orange Countyhttp://www.optics4birding.com/blog/laysan-albatross-orange-county/
Thu, 13 Apr 2017 01:33:54 +0000http://www.optics4birding.com/blog/?p=1164The Sea and Sage Audubon chapter winter pelagic trip ran recently on a February day following strong winds and storms from the southwest. A fairly large swell kept people on their toes for most of the day (going airborne while on a boat is bad!!). It was by turns rainy, windy, drizzly and sunny. For those […]

]]>The Sea and Sage Audubon chapter winter pelagic trip ran recently on a February day following strong winds and storms from the southwest. A fairly large swell kept people on their toes for most of the day (going airborne while on a boat is bad!!). It was by turns rainy, windy, drizzly and sunny. For those who braved the weather, however, the returns from this trip were spectacular! Every pelagic trip begins with a sense of hope: maybe you’ll see something rare, like an albatross. But realistically, you never really expect one to show up. As it turned out, they weren’t long in coming, and in this case it was an unprecedented one.

Laysan Albatross

A Laysan Albatross soars past the boat at close quarters.

The boat left Dana Point harbor and headed straight out into the California Channel. Four miles out, a call of “Albatross!” went up from the back of the boat. The usual stampede ensued! The bird in question, a spectacular adult Laysan Albatross, Phoebastria immutabilis, provided a first record for Orange County. This particular individual was a handsome adult bird. The distinctive dark wings and all-white body, nape and crown are distinctive. And the grayish shadow to the auricular and large pinkish bill with a pale bluish tip seal the deal. The bird made several passes by the boat, found nothing that interested it, and sailed off, leaving us all wishing for more. Alas, it was not to be as we never saw this bird again during the entire trip. But it sure woke everyone up!

Black-footed Albatross

A Black-footed Albatross in full dynamic soaring mode

Less than a mile further out, suddenly, people began crying “Albatross!” again. We all hoped it was the Laysan returning. To our surprise, a Black-footed Albatross, Phoebastria nigripes, came cruising up in our wake. Slightly larger than a Laysan, Black-footed Albatross is a uniform blackish-brown color except for a white flash in the primaries and a white ring around the base of the bill. The ring gets more prominent as the birds age. Black-footed Albatross is also quite rare in Orange County; there were only a few previous records of this species in county waters. This bird was quite a bit more cooperative than the Laysan, making several passes around the boat, and coming up in the wake among the gull flock to inspect offerings of popcorn and other chum. But once it coursed off, we never saw it again.

As it happened, we saw several more Black-footed Albatrosses during the trip. Careful analysis of people’s photographs indicated that we recorded at least three different individual albatrosses.

Shearwaters

A Black-vented Shearwater crossing through the wake

The two albatrosses had everyone on board excited, and now they were all alert. Observers scrutinized every Black-vented Shearwater (Puffinus opisthomelas) carefully, and it didn’t take long to find an “all dark shearwater”, which turned out to be a Sooty Shearwater, Puffinus griseus. Unlike Black-vented Shearwaters, which breed in the northern hemisphere, Sooty Shearwater is a southern hemisphere bird, and at this time of year, most of them are below the equator perpetuating their species. We usually observe a few stragglers like this one on the winter pelagic trip. Looking at the incredibly worn state of this bird’s plumage, one wonders how it flew at all!

When the spring pelagic occurs, many of these bird will be post-breeding and wandering about the northern Pacific. Sadly, the only Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) we saw all day never really approached the boat.

Auklets and Murrelets

A heavily molting Sooty Shearwater

We saw three alcids on the day: Scripps’s Murrelets (Synthliboramphus scrippsi), Cassin’s Auklets (Ptychoramphus aleuticus) and Rhinoceros Auklets (Cerorhinca monocerata). The Scripps’s Murrelets invariably occurred in pairs, suggesting they were preparing to breed. By contrast, the two auklet species were in small groups or by themselves.

Most alcids are fairly shy, and getting close enough to them for good photographs is difficult. Something about a 75-foot boat bearing down on them intimidates them! Usually, when the boat approached, they dove or took off running on the surface of the water. On the upside, many of the Cassin’s Auklets were too fat to get airborne! Other trip highlights included a Black-legged Kittiwake, a female Brown Booby, and an extremely pale Northern Fulmar. As usual on a trip like this, there were interesting non-birds as well. Marine mammals observed included migrating Gray Whales, Common Dolphins and California Sea Lions. Pelagic trips always produce something interesting to see!

]]>Summer Pelagic Trip from Dana Pointhttp://www.optics4birding.com/blog/summer-pelagic-trip-dana-point/
Wed, 30 Jul 2014 02:52:15 +0000http://staging.optics4birding.com/blog/?p=14The Summer Pelagic trip out of Dana Point sponsored by Sea & Sage Audubon was last Saturday, 12-JUL-14. On Saturday, a light wind raised a bit of chop that made it unpleasant for some trip participants, even on the 70-foot R/V Sea Explorer, and it certainly made photography a bit more challenging! Getting a good, […]

The Summer Pelagic trip out of Dana Point sponsored by Sea & Sage Audubon was last Saturday, 12-JUL-14. On Saturday, a light wind raised a bit of chop that made it unpleasant for some trip participants, even on the 70-foot R/V Sea Explorer, and it certainly made photography a bit more challenging! Getting a good, steady view of these birds can be difficult at the best of times, and an additional source of motion doesn’t help.

Conditions in the Santa Barbara Channel seldom get anywhere near as rough as those out in the open ocean. In fact, our relatively calm waters are part of what makes these quarterly Sea & Sage Pelagic trips with the boat from the Dana Point Ocean Institute so appealing. Another advantage to these trips is the vast experience of the Ocean Institute personnel, particularly Captain Mike Bursk, whose vast knowledge of all the ocean wildlife adds greatly to the experience.

Pelagic Trip Birds

Pink-footed Shearwater Gliding

This particular pelagic trip was dominated by truly pelagic birds: procellariids (“tubenoses”), in the form of Black-vented, Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters and Black and Ashy Storm-Petrels. Many of these seabirds were heavily molting, and looking a bit patchy as a result. In some cases, the upper wing was missing so many feathers you could see features of the under wing right through it! (see a molting Sooty Shearwater (here)). Additionally, we had three species of alcids including Cassin’s Auklets, and both Scripps’s and Craveri’s Murrelets. Additionally, we had a good selection of larids including Western, California and Heermann’s Gulls, Elegant, Caspian, Common, Royal and California Least Terns and a lone Pomarine Jaeger.

Sooty Shearwater in flight

One interesting note on the day was the bird distribution. As we proceeded directly out to the Lausen seamount, we went through a “band” of Black-vented Shearwaters (here) that paralleled the near shore; further out towards Catalina Island, almost no Black-vents were seen. There we had good numbers of Sooty and Pink-footed Shearwaters.

Identifying Shearwaters

Sooty Shearwater is readily distinguished from the other two by its completely dark belly. At distance, the easiest ways to separate these three species is by their flight behavior. Fapping speed and length of glide are inversely proportionate to size. The larger Pink-footed Shearwaters have a languid wing beat, coasting in graceful glides over the water, altogether more stately and elegant. By contrast, Sooty Shearwaters flap more rapidly and glide less, while Black-vented Shearwaters are almost frenetic with their rapid wing beats and short glides.

Black Storm-Petrel in flight

Black Storm-Petrels

Closer to Catalina, we found several flocks of at least 30 feeding Black Storm-Petrels, often “walking” on the water with legs extended as they fed (see them walking here). Two Ashy-Storm Petrels were a special treat, distinguished by their paler overall color and more fluttery wing beats, contrasting with the nighthawk-like flight of the Black Storm-Petrels. Sadly, the Ashies stayed quite far away from the boat, not allowing for very good views, let alone good photos. Black Storm-Petrels aren’t really black; they’re just darker overall than some species. Closer views of these handsome birds reveal paler greater coverts that appear as light diagonal bars against the darker wing surface.

Studying Murrelets

Craveri’s Murrelets

This trip let us to study the Scripps’s Murrelets in contrast with the much more uncommon Craveri’s Murrelets. Scripps’s Murrelets have a shorter stubby bill and less grayish black coloration on the side of the neck. They tend to not raise their shorter tails quite as prominently. We saw several groups of Scripps’s Murrelets, including one pair with a nearly full-grown youngster. Craveri’s Murrelets have longer, narrower bills and more gray coloration on top. They often hold their proportionally longer tails cocked up like a rail. Typically, Craveri’s Murrelets don’t move into the Santa Barbara Channel waters until late summer or early fall. Speculation is that warmer surface waters further south prompted an earlier northward movement as food resources dwindle.

Other Interesting Sightings

Leucistic Black-vented Shearwater with normal Black-vented Shearwater

Often on these trips we see marine mammals or other unusual creatures besides birds that interest us. This summer pelagic trip was no exception. Travelling back down the coast in the afternoon, we encountered a very large hammerhead shark. The shark was swimming slowly along the water’s surface, something they very rarely do. Captain Mike sped past the shark and then drew up allowing it to overtake us for great looks. People on the upper deck of the boat had amazing looks! Hammerheads have a very prominent dorsal fin and an asymmetric caudal (tail) fin and we saw both protruding above the water’s surface as this great fish swam up to us.

The other unusual animal sighting of this trip involved two different partially leucistic Black-vented Shearwaters. One of these was nearly completely white on the anterior end and the normally all-black bill was pinkish from the lack of pigmentation (see more photos of this bird (here) and (here)). Sightings like these add real interest to an already fascinating pelagic trip!